Why does Europe wait for massive adoption in 2020 if you can have it in place by 1 March 2013? It is again clear that the American countries are setting the pace for e-invoicing and e-invoicing adoption.

On 1 March this year the Treasurer of the United States, Rosie Rios, started an official countdown clock, marking one year until the March 1, 2013 deadline when ALL federal benefit recipients must receive their Social Security and other federal benefit payments electronically.

Treasurer Rios urged remaining paper check recipients to switch now and help taxpayers save $1 billion over 10 years.

the number of monthly paper check payments for Social Security, Veterans Affairs and other federal benefits has dropped to approximately 7 million – down from a high of 11 million in 2010.

the Go Direct® campaign is now working with more than 1,800 partner organisations throughout the country to spread the message, developing a new series of public service announcements and providing other supportive materials such as an instructional video about how to make the switch online or over-the-phone and about how electronic payments work.

Internet Payment Platform

To eliminate paper filings and also speed up research for federal employees the Treasury Department will launch a Internet Payment Platform by the end of September.

The platform is – of course- a secure web-based system that processes vendor payment data electronically and automates the routing and approval workflow within an agency. The new platform provides visibility into contract payments for vendors and departments. All new payment requests in fiscal 2013 will be processed in the centralized electronic invoicing and payment information system, the Federal Register notice states.

The US Treasury:

hopes to stop filing and storing paper payment documents.

wants to reduce the amount of time workers spend in researching and answering payment status questions. It would also increase transparency in the overall payment process.

expects the platform to reduce the time it takes to make a payment.

creates a standard set of electronic data to submit payment requests to the government.

believes the platform can save money on postage costs while improving cash management by eliminating things like routing documents.

believes that the platform also could reduce the costs of dealing with multiple processes and requirements.